The Nightmare Vacation
by Dramatic-ADD-Having-ass-Writer
Summary: The Fosters go on their first annual family vacation since Callie and Jude arrived. But what happens when their special bonding journey, turns into their worst nightmare, when they end up being the targets of the most terrorizing event of their lives. Definitely AU.
1. The First Sign

**So, the other day I was looking for a good scary movie to watch on Netflix, but I couldn't find one. So I figured, why not write my own. Plus, there's nothing like this in "The Fosters" section of the website, so I took a chance and went for it. **

**I don't own The Fosters etc. etc.**

**READ THE SUMMARY. If you don't like it, then do NOT continue reading. Definitely not a Brallie.**

* * *

"Mariana! Let's go!" Stef called for the thousandth time. "If you're not in the car in one minute, we're leaving without you."

"Go ahead!" Mariana yelled.

She hated going on this annual vacation that her moms always found the need to make time for every, single, year.

It had been fun when she was younger, when she, Jesus, and Brandon didn't know any better, when they would be entertained by the littlest things, and loved to just cuddle with their mothers and sing-a-long to songs on the five hour drive, to the secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere.

But now, she hated every second of it. The arguing in the car, the stupid songs that her mothers still tried to get them all to sing-a-long to, the no-cellphone-rule that her mothers made for the trip, because they thought they were too distracting.

"This is supposed to be a bonding experience," Lena always repeats.

That was her excuse.

But what she didn't realize was that the kids found it more torturous in the recent years, regardless of the lack of cell-phone signal that the small cabin in the woods came along with.

Stef looked at Callie and Jude, who were both giving each other worried looks, after hearing what their brothers and sister thought about the "special bonding experience" they would have to endure for an entire week.

"Come on, Mariana! This is Callie and Jude's first vacation with us! We don't want to keep them waiting on all of the family fun we're going to have!" Stef yelled as she walked over and got in between both siblings, and put her arms over both of them as she smiled. "This is going to be fun," she assured the two newest members.

They tried to smile too, but they hadn't really known what to expect, besides what their brothers and sister told them. None of which was good.

Mariana reached the top of the stairs and stared at her mother, "If you call being stuck in "mosquito-bloodsucking central" with no outside communication due to the lack of cellphone-signal fun?"

Lena heard her daughter, "Mariana. We go on this vacation every year."

Jesus walked in to grab his duffel bag, "Yeah, that's the problem."

Stef argued, "Well, I think it's fantastic for all of us to spend some quality time together, without the cell-phones and all this other social media crap you kids use on a daily basis."

"Honey," Lena warned her wife after she used her version of a "bad word".

"I'm sorry, babe. It just slipped out."

"If we can't bring our cell-phones and laptops why do you get to bring your gun?" Mariana asked Stef as she pointed to the pistol on Stef's belt.

Lena glanced down at it, "Stef."

"What?"

"There's no reason to bring that. Please take it back upstairs, where I don't have to see it."

Mariana smiled as soon as she saw Stef's sudden happiness shift into disappointment, "I'm not going to shoot anybody, Lena. I promise."

"Exactly, which is just another reason why you don't need it. And besides, you're not allowed to cross-state lines with your weapon."

Stef squinted her eyes at Mariana in an accusing way.

"Don't look at her like that," Lena cautioned. "She's absolutely right. This is going to be a peaceful vacation, and what would make it even more peaceful, is if I don't have to see a gun lodged onto your hip the entire time."

"Fine, my love," Stef agreed as she gave her wife a quick peck on the cheek. "No gun," she said in a defeated voice, as she walked up the stairs in a sulking way. As soon as she reached the top, she glared at her daughter once again.

Lena shook her head and tried to hide her own laughter, "Let's go. Everyone in the cars."

"I call shot gun in Mama's car!" Mariana shouted. There was no way she was going in her Mom's car after calling her out on her gun.

"Big surprise," Jesus said sarcastically. "I guess I'll take the backseat of Mom's."

"I'll guess I'll take shot gun in Mom's," Brandon shrugged. He didn't really care.

"That's my boy," Stef smiled as she came back down the stairs.

"Callie?" Lena asked.

"Yeah, I guess I'll ride with you. What about you Jude?" Callie looked at her brother.

"Would you be mad if I rode with Stef?" Jude asks as he stared at Callie. Then at Lena, which surprised everyone.

"No, not at all, Jude" Lena stated as she shot him a reassuring smile.

"Go on," Callie said as she pushed him gently out the door, in back of Jesus.

* * *

_In the car _

"This is going to be great, you guys," Lena started. She looked over at Mariana, and then at Callie from the rearview mirror, and put her car in drive.

Mariana gave her a flattened expression, while Callie tried to give her a nervous smile. She admired the fact the her new moms wanted to include her and her brother in their family tradition, but she couldn't ignore the fact that they were the only ones that seemed excited about it.

"So…How long have you all been doing this? Vacation, I mean?" Callie asked in an effort to start some conversation.

"Too long," Mariana mumbled, which caused Lena to smile. She knew her daughter hated it the most, but she also knew that Mariana would get accustomed to it after day two.

"About 5 years. I think this'll be our sixth one, right?" Lena asked as she looks over at her other daughter.

"I guess so," Mariana said with a loud sigh followed right afterward.

"Well, anyway, it used to be the highlight of Mariana's life, before she entered high school that is. We used to have so much fun, and I think that it'll be even more fun with all of us there."

Mariana opened her mouth, "It would be more fun if we went somewhere else for a change."

"But that would mean breaking the tradition," Lena argued as she pat Mariana on the leg twice. "Honey, you're just mad because you can't use your cell-phone."

"Do you have any idea how torturous that is for a teenager. It's like I left my soul back at home or something."

"Your soul?" Callie asked, and her and Lena burst out laughing.

"You two are not normal," Mariana stated as she shoved her earbuds in her ears and raised the volume on her iPod.

"Don't listen to her, Callie. It's going to be a lot of fun."

* * *

"Mama, I think we're lost. You should call Mom to come and find us," Mariana said, after five and a half hours of being stuck in a car. She turned around to look at Callie. "Oh, wait. You can't because we couldn't bring our phones on the trip!" She started laughing, and Callie had to cover up her smile.

Mariana instantly lost it, when she saw Lena casually pull out her iPhone from her jacket pocket, "Hey! That's not fair!"

"What's not fair is when I ground you on this vacation, because you're questioning me. Mom and I are adults, and we only brought our phones in case of an emergency. Which is exactly what we're having right now," Lena answered, as she looks through her phone for Stef's number.

"Like grounding me would make a difference over here," Mariana mumbled as she glanced around the road that lead to nowhere.

"I wouldn't take your chances," Lena answered as she gave her daughter a stern look, but turned her gaze back to the rode, "Stef. It's me. I think we're a little lost."

"It's like we've been on the merry-go-round for hours," Mariana mumbled loudly. Stef heard and started laughing.

"Where are you guys?"

"I don't know. There's not a sign in sight."

"That means we have to be close," Mariana turned to tell Callie, which caused Callie to smile again.

"All right babe. Stay where you are and make sure the Find My Phone app is on. I'll be there soon."

"Okay. Bye," Lena said as she hung up the phone.

Out of nowhere all three of them hear and feel a loud thump coming from the front of the vehicle.

"What was that?" Mariana asked worriedly as she looked over to her mother, as she always did when she was nervous about something. Regardless of her age, she still expected them both to have the answers to everything.

"I don't know," Lena answered as she pulled the car over to the side of the road. The car made some rattling sounds before it finally came to a stop.

All three of them came out of the car to find out what happened to the car.

After a few seconds, Callie found the problem, "I think you hit a nail or something. There's a hole in the back-tire."

"No," Lena said in an exaggerating voice, not wanting it to be true. She walked over to see what Callie had been looking at and saw the giant gash in the back-tire. She sighed, "It's okay. I think I have a spare. Hopefully, Stef can change it when she gets here. Mariana, can open the trunk for me please?"

When Lena gets the trunk open, she reaches for the spare tire only to see that it also had a large gash through it, "What the hell?" Lena mumbled, which cause Mariana and Callie to give her surprised expressions, because they knew that she never cursed.

"This is a sign, Mom. I think we should go back home," Mariana said nonchalantly. Honestly, she had been praying for a reason to go back home.

"Don't be silly. I must've forgotten to buy a spare the last time this happened. Mom and I are just going to have to buy another tire around here. That's all," Lena assured her two daughters.

But she couldn't help but wonder why the spare tire was destroyed, when she was almost 100% positive that she purchased another one just a month ago.

* * *

**Okay, obviously nothing too crazy has happened yet. But I will get there. After all, what scary movies start off insane from the beginning? **


	2. It's Nothing Personal

**Okay, I got a few concerns on whether or not the family was going to die. OMG NO! I know this is kind of like a horror fic or what not, but I still can't kill them off. I don't have the heart. If anyone else comes in though, they are fair game. Just sayin.'**

* * *

A little over ten minutes passed before Stef and the boys showed up. Stef got out of the car once she saw Lena leaning up against it, and her two daughters sitting on top of the trunk. She couldn't help but smile, "How are my little damsels in distress?"

"Miserable," Mariana answered with a nonchalant tone.

"We got a flat," Callie continued.

"Oh, no!" Stef said, but her tone made it seem as if it was no big deal. "I guess we're all going to have to just spend the entire week stranded in one car," she joked.

"It gets worse," Lena started. "The spare has a hole through it too."

"What?" Stef asked more exaggeratingly than before, but this time she was being sincere. "That can't be. We just bought a spare for your car—"

"We did. Didn't we?" Lena agreed.

"Unless the mechanic put the old one back by mistake. But the jerk charged us for it," Stef said while shaking her head. "Well, it doesn't matter now. You and I can take my car and go pick up another tire. The kids can walk to the cabin. It's only about a 15 minute walk."

"Walk? Like with our feet?" Callie asked as she and Mariana shared the same panicked expressions.

Lena smiled. But Stef answered, "Yes. Walk with your feet. You two do know how to do that, don't you?"

"I guess," they both answered at the same time, realizing that they had no choice in the matter.

"Okay good." Stef looked over to her car and waved the boys forward, "You guys have to walk to the cabin from here. It's straight ahead. About 15 minutes. Brandon, you know where it is."

"Yup."

"Good. You're in charge. Let's go!" she clapped her hands so that they all could all get a move on.

"This sucks," Mariana complained.

"Oh, you'll be fine, Miss. Thing," Stef said as she grabbed Mariana's bag from the backseat and handed it over to her.

"Doubt it," Mariana mumbled.

Stef chose to ignore her, "Mama and I should be back in less than an hour." She pulled out her cell-phone and handed it to Mariana, who was the closest, "Take this until we get back." Mariana smiled, "For emergencies only," Stef clarified after seeing the gleam in her daughter's eyes at the sight of the phone.

Mariana's face straightened and the gleam dissipated, "Got it."

* * *

_20 minutes later_

"This vacation blows," Jesus complained.

Mariana complained next, "We're getting too old for this. I think it's time to seriously have a talk with Moms about stopping this tradition. Like it's a tradition for a reason. It's old. It should stay in the past."

"Oh, come on, guys. It makes Moms happy," Brandon argued.

"It makes them happy to see us miserable?" Mariana questioned.

"No, it makes them happy to spend quality time with us."

"They see us everyday," Jesus stated matter-of-factly.

Brandon chose to ignore him, "And besides, it's only for a week. One week out of the year."

"For ten years!" Jesus yelled, as they finally made their way to the door of the cabin. He leaned over and grabbed the spare key from under the matt.

Callie and Jude laughed quietly.

"It can't be that bad," Callie tried to defend her mothers even though they weren't even there.

"Just you wait, Callie. Oh, just you wait," Mariana said warningly, as she followed Jesus into the cabin, leaving Callie, Brandon, and Jude outside.

"Why am I suddenly even more worried than I was when I left the house?" Callie asked Brandon.

"Because my little sister is a narcissist. It's not that bad. We'll just spend the entire week playing board games, charades, telling scary stories, watching movies and laying out by the lake. The week will be over before you know it."

Callie and Jude both nodded before they made their way inside of the cabin.

As soon as they walked in they saw Jesus standing by the dining table and Mariana sprawled out on the couch. Jesus had a piece of paper in his hands and was looking at it intently as he read.

Mariana jumped up from the couch, "Callie, lets go by the lake. The sun is still out and we can work on our tans."

"Tans?" Callie questioned, and she couldn't help but smile at how excited Mariana seemed to have gotten in a matter of seconds.

"Oh, come on. There's finally another girl here. The boys never want to go tanning with me, so it will be fun. Pleaseeeeeee," Mariana begged.

"Okay, Mariana. I'll go with you. But I will need sunblock."

"That defeats the purpose of tanning, Callie."

Callie shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Fine, I guess I'll take what I can get."

"Oh, thanks," Callie smiled.

"Hey guys. Guess what I found?" Jesus tried to get their attention.

"What?" they all asked at the same time.

"The creepiest note I've ever read. Well, poem actually."

"So?" Mariana said.

"Okay?" Brandon answered sarcastically, wondering why Jesus felt the need to announce it. He silently questioned whether his little brother took his ADHD medication this morning.

"So, check this out. It's titled, They Never Saw Us Coming." He began reading the poem out loud:

**They were the perfect family,**

**As far as everyone would know.**

**But they didn't expect the unexpected,**

**They didn't expect how far we'd go.**

**They smiled, cried, and even laughed collectively,**

**Without a second thought to the first sign.**

**They disregarded what was right in front of them,**

**They didn't see that they'd soon be mine.**

**Family number six was all they were to us,**

**The new sixth of the unlucky few.**

**I hope they know it was never personal,**

**It's just something we people do.**

**But now that they have finally arrived,**

**They can experience first hand the delight,**

**The delight we feel when we start to chase them,**

**In hopes that they'll give us the ultimate fight,**

**They could scream to the top of their lungs, **

**But where they are, no one else will hear,**

**It doesn't matter how terrified they become,**

**No one will make it out alive, or even come near.**

"Creepy huh?" Jesus stated casually.

"Where did you find that?" Callie asked worriedly.

"It was right here. Someone left it out on the table."

"I'm sure it was just a joke. Just throw it out," Brandon said.

"No. I kind of like it. I'm keeping it."

"Ew, Jesus. You're sick," Marina said while giving Jesus a disgusted look. She grabbed Callie's arm, "Come on, before the sun disappears on us." Before Callie could protest, Mariana was dragging her out the door.

"You should show Moms," Jude piped in. The note actually terrified him the most out of all five of them.

"No. Mama would probably make me throw it out. Relax, Jude. It's not serious. In fact, I'll probably leave it in the same spot I found out right before we leave, so it'll scare the crap out of the next family," Jesus smiled as he patted Jude on the back.

"He's right, Jude. It's just a joke. A bad one. But it didn't mean anything," Brandon assured his little brother.

"Okay," Jude responded even though he still couldn't disregard the bad feeling that he got in the pit of his stomach.

Tbc…

* * *

**So, how about that poem? Creepy enough? I tried to Google "scary poems", but couldn't find the perfect one to describe their situation. So I created one myself :) Hope you liked it, or were at least a little scared by it. That was the goal anyway. **

**Let me know your thoughts so far. **

**Btw, I'll be updating **_**Rose Again**_** today as well. Maybe another one of my fics too. Not sure which one though. And thank you all for your reviews. They definitely encourage me to write more so thanks :)**


	3. Tick Tock

As soon as they reached the lake, Mariana and Callie laid their towels onto the sand. "This vacation doesn't seem so bad," Callie tried to convince her sister.

"I guess you're right," Mariana smiled. "I guess I just hated it so much because I was stuck with Brandon and Jesus all the time. But this feels different. Good, different."

"Worth not having your phone?" Callie jokes.

"I don't know about that," Mariana answers, which causes her sister to laugh. "You know, I still don't understand that rule. If God didn't want us to have phones, then he wouldn't have given them to us, right?"

Callie chuckled, "How does that one go over with your moms?"

"Not very well as you can guess… They're your moms too, ya know?"

Callie nodded shyly and gave her a forced-smile.

"I'm serious. You're part of this family Cals, whether you like it or not. When it comes time for this vacation every year, you're going to wish you weren't," she joked. "But you still are," she slapped her sister on the arm gently.

"No, I know." Callie's attention was geared toward the lake the second she saw a huge white boat from afar. "So, other families come here too?"

Mariana lifted her head and turned her attention to the boat that her sister was looking at, "No…That's strange. Ours is the only cabin in at least 15 miles. I wonder what they're doing here?"

Callie shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe their moms are making them spend quality time together too," she joked.

Mariana breathed in loudly from excitement, "Yay! That would mean we have to leave!"

"Or maybe they'll leave, since we got here first," Callie said flatly.

"Oh, you suck," Mariana said, but ended up smiling anyway.

Callie handed her sister the bottle of sunblock, "Hey can you put some of this on my back?"

Mariana gave her a questioning look, "You're serious? Sunblock?"

"Yes, I'm serious, Mariana. I don't tan like you, I burn."

Mariana shook her head and grabbed the bottle from her sister reluctantly, "You know this is the opposite of what you're supposed to do on a vacation, right?"

"Yes, I know," Callie answered, as she put her hair up with a hair tie.

"Okay," Mariana said flatly as she got in behind of Callie.

"It looks like they're coming right over here," Callie's eyes were fixed on the white boat. "What do you think they want?"

"Who knows? ...Maybe they got lost or something."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Mariana screamed, which startled Callie and caused her to turn around immediately.

"What the hell is that?" Callie practically yelled as she saw red liquid on Mariana's hand, which was dripping down onto the towel. It resembled nothing other than blood.

Mariana threw the bottle in the air and started jumping up and down, as she stared at her hand, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."

"Is that blood?" Callie asked worriedly.

Both girls exchange panicked looks.

At that exact moment the boat blew it's horn loudly, causing both girls to jump up and run back towards the cabin.

* * *

As soon as they saw the cabin in sight, they both felt relieved when they saw their mothers pulling up in front.

Stef got out of the car and was practically trampled over by her daughter. Mariana's body collided with hers when she ran to give her a hug. She sobbed loudly into her mother's shirt and refused to let her go.

"What is going on?" Stef asked worriedly as she tried to push Mariana's head up so that she could meet her eyes. She had never seen her daughter so afraid in her life, and she sensed that something was very wrong.

For once, Mariana was speechless.

"Honey, is that blood?" Lena asked as she turned her gaze toward Callie for an answer.

"I don't know," Callie answered quietly as she stood closer by Stef's side.

Stef looked down to see Mariana's hand, "Sweets, did you cut yourself with something?"

They all heard the boat blow its horn again, and Mariana tightened her grip around her mother as Callie grabbed onto Lena's arm.

Lena and Stef shared concerned looks with one another. They were both thinking the same thing. A) Why were their daughters so scared and B) Why were they hearing a boat so nearby.

"Why don't we all go inside," Lena offered as she slightly pushed a very terrified Callie towards the door.

"Come on, Miss Thing. You're okay. Let's go get you cleaned up, yes?"

Mariana looked up at her mother, "Mom, something really bad is happening," she cried. Stef wrapped her arms around her daughter.

The boat's horn blew again.

Stef turned her attention back towards the direction of the lake, "Who the hell is that?"

Mariana looked over towards the lake too, just waiting to see someone appear from the forest they had to pass to get back home.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Stef cooed as she walked her daughter back inside, but Mariana's gaze hadn't left the tall trees by the lake.

Stef closed the door behind them.

"Lock it," Mariana instructed.

"What's wrong? Did somebody scare you?" Stef asked sternly as she glanced back at the door.

Mariana shook her head and locked the door behind her as she ran over the kitchen sink.

Stef followed her and grabbed her hand before she could stick it under the faucet, "This is blood, Mariana. Whose blood is this?"

Mariana started tearing the moment her mother confirmed what the red substance was. She prayed it was food coloring or something else that her twin brother stuck inside the sunblock just to scare them. But now she knew that it wasn't.

"We don't know," Callie answered for her. "Somebody filled my sunblock bottle with it."

"Who would do that?" Lena asked worriedly.

"Oh my God, Mariana! Are you okay?" Jesus shouted as he ran over to his sister, who he assumed had gotten hurt.

"It's not her blood, Jesus," Callie answered for him.

"Huh?" he asked confused.

Jude walked into the kitchen, "What's going on? What happened to Mariana?"

Callie ran over and hugged him tightly.

"Callie, you're scaring me," Jude said, his voice trembling from fear and nervousness. His sister never behaved like this, unless they were in some type of danger.

"Nothing, Jude. Everything's fine," Lena tried to assure the young boy.

"No it's not… Is this about the poem, Callie?" Jude backed away to look at his sister's face.

Callie froze.

"What poem?" Stef asked as she approached the two siblings.

"The scary one. Brandon said that it was a joke!" Jude yelled as he shot Brandon a look, when their eldest son came barging into the room.

Stef turned around and looked at her son accusingly, "Is this true, Brandon? Are you trying to scare everyone?"

"What? No! I didn't write the poem. Jesus found it laid out onto the table, when we got here."

"Where is this poem?" Lena asked Jesus, who pulled it out of his back pocket.

Stef snatched the paper from her son from and unfolded it. Lena walked over to her wife and they read the poem silently.

"This was left on the table?" Stef asked angrily.

"Yeah, but we didn't write it. We all thought that, whoever was here last, left it there just to scare us," Brandon argued.

Mariana looked over at Stef, "Mom, we need to get out of here. I don't want to be here anymore. Joke or not. This isn't fun."

Stef stared at her daughter's frightened eyes and then back at Lena, who nodded her head yes. Lena wasn't entirely sure that this wasn't a joke, but the terrified looks on all of her children's faces were enough to want to put an end to this vacation.

Stef sighed, "Alright, guys. Grab all your stuff and get in the cars. Mama's tire is fixed, so we can all head out now," she pointed towards the door.

Mariana was the first person who ran into the living room, to grab her bag.

Callie, Jude, Mariana, Jesus, and Brandon grabbed their stuff quickly and walked out the door. By this time, it had already become dark and the kids walked over to the car cautiously.

"I can't believe what a disaster this vacation has become?" Stef leaned her head on Lena's shoulder.

"MOMS!" the two women heard Jesus yell. Immediately, they ran outside and saw him staring at another paper that was taped on Lena's windshield.

* * *

Although it was dark, the outside-lights from the cabin's porch allowed them to barely read it. Surprisingly it was another poem, this one was titled: Tick Tock

**Can we ask you, how you do you feel, **

**Now that you hold their blood on your hands?**

**Do you feel any closer to family number five?**

**Or are you worried about our other plans?**

**But let us not get too carried away so soon,**

**We need to make this night last.**

**Don't you realize that we're coming after you?**

**So our best advice is to run fast.**

**That was always the biggest problem, **

**For all of the families before.**

**They didn't take us seriously.**

**They didn't see all we had in store.**

**For some reason, we don't know how, **

**To make this any clearer.**

**But to say you're running out of time,**

**As we're all approaching nearer. **

_**Tick Tock**_

After reading the poem, all of them began scanning the area with their eyes out of fear.

"Everybody get in the cars," Stef ordered, and no one hesitated this time.

Stef sensed that something was really wrong.

This couldn't be a joke.

Someone else was with them, and she'd had enough.

She put her key inside of the ignition, and twisted it to turn on the car. But instead of hearing her roaring ignition, she heard a cranking sound, a sound panicked all of the teens even more so.

Stef tried again and got the same cranking sound, when the engine refused to start.

She tried again. This time, pressing on the gas a little.

But nothing.

She turned her head at the sound of Lena's car making the same sound.

Lena's eyes met her wife's worried gaze.

Stef tried to turn on the ignition again, but this time there was no sound at all.

"Everybody get inside the cabin, right now!" she ordered.

TBC…

**Is anyone else scared? I am, and I'm the one writing it, which is strange. But whatever.**

**And by the way, the moms are definitely not setting them up. This is a straight up horror-fic. Don't expect an easy solution like that from me. I don't want anyone to feel like I led them on or something, so don't assume that.**

**Reviews? Ideas? Comments? Questions? Whatever? Lmk :)**


	4. Digging Their Own Graves

All of the kids and Lena ran inside of the house, while Stef locked the door behind them. Brandon and Jesus ran into the kitchen leaving all of the women and Jude in the living room.

"That was them? Wasn't it?" Jude asked in a trembling voice as he moved closer to Callie. "They were the one's that messed with the cars."

Lena was absolutely horrified at the thought that someone would intentionally be doing this, but she couldn't let her kids know that, "No, honey. That wasn't anyone's fault." She wrapped her arms around the scared boy, to keep him from trembling and to soothe him.

"She's right, Bud. It was just a coincidence," Stef tried to assure the 13 year old, as she gave him a kiss on the top of his head.

Mariana and Callie sat on the couch practically clinging to each other. Mariana was tearing and Callie was on the verge of doing so. Their eyes were darting from one open window to another.

After Stef saw the fear that was suddenly instilled in her two daughters, she walked over to the couch and knelt down in front of them and whispered so Jude couldn't hear, "It's not real, my babies. So, I don't want you to worry about it. Okay?"

Mariana wanted nothing more than to believe her mother. But she couldn't brush away all of the bad things that were happening, the sound of the white boat blowing it's horn, the image of the blood dripping onto her hands, the cold feeling she felt the moment it collided onto her palms.

"You were the one that said it was blood," Callie reminded her. _Why couldn't Stef just lie to them and tell them it was something else?_

"I know, Sweets. But it might've just been animal blood or something else," Stef tries to calm her daughters.

"Because that sounds so much better," Callie snapped. She didn't mean to snap at her mother. But with everything that was gong on, she couldn't help but mask most of her fear with anger.

That was something Stef normally did, but Stef knew that she had to be the bigger person here, "I'm going to go try to fix the cars, and I want all of you to stay in here."

"Stef," Lena pleaded.

"I'll be fine, my Love."

"You can't go out there," Callie stated with more force.

"She's right, Mom. You can't," Jesus told her as he came out of the kitchen with Brandon.

Stef sighed at her children's persistence. They were scared. And as much as she hated to admit it, they all were.

"We should just call the police," Lena interjected.

"And what the hell am I?" Stef asked her with annoyance. In her mind, they were the parents. They were the ones that had to keep it together through this. _How could they expect to calm their children, if they were showing signs of fear?_ "I'll be right back," she said while making her way over to the front door.

"I'm going with you," Brandon walked over to his mother.

"No, B," Stef shook her head.

"Me too," Jesus said as he grabbed the table lamp and took off the lampshade, pulling the cord out of the wall.

"Oh, no, no,no. No one is coming with me. Put that lamp down Jesus. Now," Stef practically yelled.

"No," he said flatly.

"No?" Stef challenged.

"No," he repeated, as he banged the light bulb of the lamp on the edge of the table, so that the top of the lamp would be sharp.

Stef's mouth dropped open after Jesus broke the lamp.

"Good idea," Brandon said as he went to grab the other lamp to do the same.

"Young man, if you break that lamp, I promise you'll regret it," Stef scolded.

"That's if I live that long," he said while pulling the top off of the lamp and smashing it on the end of the coffee table too.

Stef put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, as she thought about how ridiculous her boys were acting. "Boys, relax. I have my gun, I'll be fine."

"You didn't bring your gun," Lena reminded her. "I told you to put it back in the safe, before we left the house."

Stef sighed with guilt, "I know you did, Babe…But I didn't listen." She pulled out her weapon that she had hidden in back of her.

Normally, this would cause for a huge argument between the two women. But Lena couldn't blame her wife, especially now, with everything that was going on. She nodded her head and looked at her wife, "Okay."

"Okay," Stef said as she twisted the doorknob of the front door, and held up her weapon in case she would need it. Her two sons were right behind her, with their broken lamps.

Stef peaked her head out and couldn't see anyone, because the porch-light had gone off. "Great," she muttered. "Somebody hand me the flashlight," she ordered. Lena quickly grabbed one of the flashlights, which she had packed earlier for an emergency, and handed it over to her wife.

Stef stepped out of the cabin with her two sons and glanced around with the flashlight. Within a few seconds, the porch light went on, allowing them to see a little better.

They all froze the second they spotted seven shovels dug into the ground. The shovels were standing upright and were side-by-side. Stef and the kids knew that they weren't there when they had arrived.

"Oh my God," Jesus mumbled as he grabbed his mother and dragged her back inside. Brandon followed and slammed the door back shut, locking it right behind them.

"What happened?" Lena asked with worry evident in her voice. She knew that whatever it was wasn't good.

"What does this mean?" Brandon asked worriedly.

Stef shook her head and stayed silent, and it was obvious that she was in a daze.

Jesus answered, "I think they want us to dig our own graves…"

**Tbc…**

**Are you guys still scared? I'm trying to think of things that would be scary to me, but I don't know if I still have your guys' attention…**


	5. Let The Games Begin

**So, I know I haven't updated any of my fics for a little while. And I won't lie, most of that has been due to laziness. But I'm going to try to update them more often. If there's a specific one you're waiting on, let me know and I'll see what I can do :)**

* * *

"What happened?" Lena asked Stef angrily, causing the blonde to snap out of her trance-like-state.

"There are seven shovels outside," Jesus answered.

Mariana, Callie, and Jude's eyes widened after they heard Jesus' words. Lena just froze at the thought.

Stef quickly began walking around the cabin and putting all of the locks on the windows. When the boys realized what she was doing, they followed her lead, closing and locking all of the windows in the cabin. After she was finished she quickly whipped out her cell-phone to call 911, but she immediately noticed that there were no service bars on the screen.

She dialed anyway and held the phone to her ear, hoping that it would go through since it was an emergency call, but no such luck, "DAMNIT!" she yelled.

Lena stood up and walked over to her wife, "What's wrong?"

"The call won't go through."

"Not even to call 911?"

"No, Lena," she replied angrily. Stef wasn't mad at her wife, but she was mad in general. She was mad that she was scared in the first place, and she was mad that she wasn't sure if this was really happening to them.

Jude quickly ran over to the couch and laid next to his sister. Callie tried to keep the tears from falling out of her eyes, so that she wouldn't scare her little brother. But what she didn't notice was that her grip on the poor boy as she hugged him, showed just how afraid she was.

Brandon and Jesus stared at each other's faces with worry in their eyes.

At that exact moment, everyone jumped at the sound of someone banging their fists on the door three times.

Stef immediately drew out her gun and looked over to her wife and whispered, "Take everyone to the main bedroom and tell them to hide."

By the look Lena gave her wife, Stef knew that it would be difficult to get her to leave. "I'm not leaving you alone, Stef." Her voice was shaky from the fear, but still persistent. She had no inclination of moving from her wife's side, regardless of what the woman said.

"Lena. Go now," she whispered but the assertiveness in her tone still came out.

"I'm not going, Stef." Lena looked over at Brandon, "Go with the kids and go to the—"

"What? No way. We're staying with you guys," Brandon argued.

* * *

They all drew their attention back towards the door when they heard the knocking sound, this time it was louder and there were 6 knocks.

Stef reached for the door handle and instantly whipped the door right open, ready to shoot anyone who laid a finger on her or her family. But she was surprised when she hadn't found anyone on the other side of the door. Rather than breathe a sigh of relief, she made sure to step out and survey her surroundings.

The entire porch was empty. And all that stood under the porch light was Stef and her gun.

"WHO'S OUT THERE?" she yelled. "…I'M AN OFFICER WITH THE SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT! THE COPS SHOULD BE HERE ANY MINUTE!" Stef's voice was loud and she tried to sound as strong as she could possibly make herself. But that didn't keep her from searching the perimeter, in hopes that she'd see someone move. But it was pitch black out there and the light was shining on her. She knew that whoever was out there was most likely staring straight at her, which mad her throat clench up.

Once she realized that no one was going to answer, she immediately started backing up into the house, but her foot stepped on something before she made her way all the way inside. Instinctively, she pointed her gun towards the floor, and was confused when she saw what looked to her to be a photo album.

At first she wasn't sure what to do, but she quickly realized that whoever knocked on the door wanted them to see it, so she quickly picked it up and made her way back inside of the cabin, locking the door with both locks.

"Did you see anything?" Lena asked impatiently.

"No," Stef said as she walked over and placed the large book onto the table.

"What is that?" Jesus asked.

"A photo album, I think," Stef answered nonchalantly.

"Well, what's in it?" Brandon asked curiously as he tried to open it up for himself, but Stef quickly shut it closed.

"I think your Mama and I need to see it first, B," she answered in an assertive tone.

"Are you serious?" Brandon asked her.

Jesus defended his brother, "Brandon's right. If these people are after all of us, we should all know what's really going on."

Lena looked up at her sons, "We still don't know that this isn't just a joke, you guys. A terrible joke… So let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Moms!" Brandon yelled. "Are you serious, right now? We can't think that!" His voice grew louder.

"That's right," Jesus interrupted. The poem said something about that being the mistake all of the families before us made. That they didn't take them seriously. They didn't see that this wasn't a joke."

Callie finally opened her mouth from her spot on the couch in between Mariana and Jude, "I agree with the boys. We all need to know what we're up against."

Stef wanted to keep arguing with them. She wanted to keep telling her wife and children that this was still all a joke. But she kept hearing a ringing sound in her ears that told her otherwise. She finally opened the album to keep from having to answer their questions, which she knew there were no right answers to.

Callie, Mariana and Jesus made their way over to the dinner table, that their other siblings and moms were crowding.

**Page One**: Read in big black bolded lettering **The First Sign**. The first five images were of other average-looking families crowding around their vehicles. Each picture showed an adult examining one of the tires that had been slashed. All of the photos were labeled, The Wilsons, The Kents, the Jenkins, The O'Reily's, and The Martinez'.

**Page two** consisted of the AdamsFoster family surrounding Lena's vehicle, after their tire had been slashed.

"They took pictures of us?" Mariana muttered. "This can't be real," she said as she pulled Lena closer toward her, causing Lena to instinctively wrap her arms around the girl.

Reluctantly, Stef opened the album to the 4th page after seeing that the third one was blank. The third one read **Last Chance**, and showed a young boy or girl discovering the first poem. The one warning them of what was to come. They flipped to the next page and saw a photo of Jesus finding the first poem in the dining room.

Stef angrily flipped to the next page and read **Blood is Spilt**. She saw the first few pages of teens with blood on their hands, just like Mariana had. Not surprisingly, the next page showed a photo taken of Mariana while she was in front of the cabin showing her moms her hand.

Mariana squealed at the sight of the photo and Lena had to tighten her grip around her and cover her eyes, in an effort to keep her from having a complete breakdown.

The next page read **Realizing Their Impending Doom. **It consisted of all the families before, while they were in their vehicles. Everyone seemed to have worried looks on their faces and the next page read the AdamsFoster family. One picture was of the boys in Stef's car and the other showed the girls in Lena's car.

The page after that read **We Saw You. **Each of the photos showed a male on the front porch with the light shown directly on them. The next page displayed a picture of Stef with her gun. One that was taken just a couple minutes before she found the photo album.

"How did they take this picture?" Brandon asked his mother.

Stef quickly slammed the album shut and everyone saw a paper flowing out of it.

Mariana reluctantly picked it up and read it. After she showed a numb-like reaction to it, Stef grabbed the paper from the girl's hands, already expecting to see another poem.

**Have you noticed a pattern,**

**Or are you still wasting your breath?**

**Have you been preparing,**

**For your inevitable brush with death?**

**We're getting really bored out here,**

**So why not let the games begin?**

**We're going to gut you one by one,**

**The very second that we get in.**

**If we haven't done our jobs yet, **

**And haven't convinced you enough,**

**Perhaps you should check under the floorboards,**

**If you think that you're so tough.**

Tbc…


End file.
